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March 2012

Thanks for Sending Your Questons and Pictures Amy.e.Freeze@abc.com

Amy Freeze is Meteorologist for WABC-TV's popular Eyewitness News Saturday and Sunday Morning.

Amy is one of only a few women in the world who has earned the prestigious Certified Broadcast Meteorologist accreditation from the American Meteorological Society. She also holds Seals of Approval from both the AMS and the National Weather Association.

Amy joined Channel 7's Eyewitness News Weather Team in 2011, after serving as Chief Meteorologist for Fox News in Chicago. Before that she was a meteorologist at Philadelphia's WCAU-TV, was morning meteorologist at KMGH-TV in Denver and worked on KPTV's local morning news program "Good Day Oregon" in Portland. Her work has earned her several Emmy Awards, including for "Best Weathercaster," "Outstanding Host" and for her weather special, "Surviving Severe Weather."

Amy holds a Masters Degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her B.A. in Communications from Brigham Young University, with an emphasis on Broadcast Journalism. She also has a B.S. in Geosciences from Mississippi State University, with an emphasis on Severe Weather and Forecasting.

An avid runner, Amy has completed marathons in Colorado, Illinois, Pennsylvania, California and New York, completing the New York City Marathon in 2002 and 2011. She's also a certified SCUBA diver and has taken a swim with the dozen or so 300lb sharks that reside at the New Jersey State Aquarium. She has reported on movies and entertainment, covered the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City and Atlanta, and was the first female sideline reporter for Major League Soccer. Amy also worked on the NFL Sidelines during Chicago Bears Games for four seasons.

Amy gives time to her community speaking to school children about weather and supporting charitable causes. She has emceed the Miss Illinois/Miss America Pageant in Chicago, the Miles to Fight Melanoma Race and won Chicago's "Dancing with the Stars" contest benefitting the March of Dimes.

Born in Utah and raised Southern Indiana, Amy has lived in eight states. She is married and lives on the Upper West Side with her four children.

03/15/2012

Surging Seas: NYC

New science says it’s not only getting worse, and you should expect severe flooding will happen more often. Serious floods have increased with unprecendented damage and loss of life. The Increased storm intensity is even surprising scientists.

Future flooding could be so serious that more people in NJ who live along the rivers would be forced to abandon their homes. both Storm intensity and sea level rise are to blame. Just released: Climate Central maps that show the flooding odds increased around tristate – their forecast so exact, it can be searched by ZIP code.

Risk factors in our area don’t help ---the funnel shape of New York Harbor magnifies storm surge… Long Island’s low and flat geography makes it highly vulnerable…. Sensitive areas stretch far up the Hudson River. Impact cities with exposed populations include: Hoboken, Jersey City, Toms River, Secaucus. the Bottom line is NY metro area has the nation’s highest-density population vulnerable to sea level rise…. Even if you don’t live on the waterfront… researchers say this affects everyone.

03/08/2012

Winter Wimp Out... the Results!

Almost 70 on March 8th in NYC will make it feel more like May than March... which follows the pattern we've had all winter long...WARM WINTER

"February was the warmest New York February since people started keeping track back in 1870. At a balmy average of 40.9 degrees, this February ties the 1984 record and caps off a remarkably warm three months, the "second warmest climatological winter on record, trailing only 2001-02," according to Gothamist. By contrast, the coldest February occurred in 1934, when temperatures averaged only 19.9 degrees, a staggering 21 degree difference."

The Jet Stream position which is affected by large ocean patterns is the reason NYC and much of the country had a mild winter! Here's what goes down in the history books posted by Meteorologist Amy Freeze

4th WARMEST: Warmer-than-average temperatures dominated the northern and eastern regions of the country in December, January and February, leading to the fourth warmest winter on record for the contiguous United States.

The winter season was also drier-than-average for the Lower 48, with dry conditions experienced across the West and the Southeast but wetter-than-average conditions in the Central and Southern Plains and parts of the Ohio Valley.

The average contiguous U.S. temperature during the December-February period was 36.8 degrees F, 3.9 degrees F above the 1901-2000 long-term average — the warmest since 2000.

The precipitation averaged across the nation was 5.70 inches, 0.78 inch below the long-term average.

SNOW: 3rd smallest snowcover

According to data from the Rutgers Global Snow Lab, snow cover extent during winter was approximately 237,000 square miles below the 1981-2010 average — the third smallest winter snow cover footprint in the 46-year satellite record.

Snowpack was particularly limited across parts of the West, where parts of California, Nevada, and Arizona had snowpack less than half of average.Meteorologist Amy Freeze

The fate of the Titanic may have been written in the heavens due to an astonishing set of celestial coincidences, according to a new theory.

A rare conjunction of the Moon and Sun caused icebergs to be swept into the path of the doomed ocean liner, scientists believe.

The "once-in-many-lifetimes" event brought together the Moon's closest approach to the Earth for 1,400 years, a near encounter between the Earth and the Sun, and a spring tide.

All these factors contributed to abnormally high sea levels which helped dislodge grounded icebergs and send them into the shipping lanes of the North Atlantic, it is claimed.

Preparations are now under way to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the disaster on Titanic's maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

The huge ship, which was said to be "unsinkable", struck an iceberg 375 miles south of Newfoundland on the night of April 14, 1912. Within hours, the vessel had sunk without trace with the loss of 1,500 lives.

Later it emerged that the Titanic had steamed at full speed into an area littered with icebergs despite warnings of the danger. But why so much ice should have been in the shipping lane at the time has long been a puzzle.

An investigation by US scientists at Texas State University may now have come up with the answer.

"Of course, the ultimate cause of the accident was that the ship struck an iceberg," said lead researcher Dr Donald Olson. "The Titanic failed to slow down, even after having received several wireless messages warning of ice ahead.

"They went full speed into a region with icebergs - that's really what sank the ship, but the lunar connection may explain how an unusually large number of icebergs got into the path of the Titanic."

03/04/2012

Small Towns Recover from Tornado Outbreak: A Special Kind of Tough

Note: I have lived in 8 states. I call Manhattan home on the Upper West Side. The place that influenced me the most... where I spent 18 years growing up in Southern Indiana. Everyone knows New Yorkers are tough - they are strong, smart, and they bring it when it counts. Not everyone recognizes that small towns, like the ones affected by this historic tornado outbreak --- they have a special kind of "tough" all their own. If anyone can rally next to their neighbor and help their community recover, it's a Hoosier.

Heavy hearts watched as this storm system ripped apart homes and businesses… at least one tornado happened very close to where I grew up. Friends and family say the warnings came, then in less than 10 minutes everything changed. It’s been very sad to watch a place so familar be so overwhelmed by damage.

As the tornado outbreak turned deadly – the reports hit close to the place I grew up… just 12 miles from my childhood home in Clark county – it was devestation for Henryville, IN. A place where I traveled throughout my highschool years to run cross country meets and attend Friday night Football games.

When the storm happened and even before pictures… Facebook updates came in…former neighbors posted they were scared. My highschool classmate Kelli Bagby: 4 confirmed deaths in New Pekin – a Mom, Dad and 2 of their children. But a miracle: their 2-year-old girl named Angel was found alive 10 miles south.

It’s a place where storms happen, growing up I remember the drills very well that all the schools in Clark County do regularly but this March was like nothing the area has ever seen.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels says, “the lesson I think we take away each time is you can never prepare too well."

Preparation did give the town an advantage in such a deadly storm – as a tornado lifted the roof off henryville high school 400 students were still inside All survived. This school bus didn't. The winds pushed it across the street, right into Bodroe Sykes' restaurant. “We got down in basement and VAROOM… she’s gone… we didn’t know a bus was in the resataurant.”

My former Sunday school teacher Jennifer Bowen: The crumpled bus by Henryville schools was driven by a good friend of ours...he had just gotten all the kids to safety. There are alot of heroes…

National Guardsman toured with Governor Daniels as he turned emotional. He had this message for those who are left homeless, injured or lost loved ones. “We love ya. and we are with you. and if it isn't already obvious, it will be to a lot of them. it's not just government. these are their neighbors here to help. When things are at their worst, the people in this state are at their best. "

My Aunt Julie and Uncle Steve still live in Jeffersonville where the storms were powerful but not as devastating. They will be joining their church and other volunteers to support the communities recovery.